Raipur: The Chhattisgarh Economic Offences Wing (EOW) has submitted a comprehensive 6,000-page chargesheet on May 27 in the Special Anti-Corruption Court, Raipur, against nine accused, including senior bureaucrats and businessmen, in connection with the District Mineral Foundation (DMF) scam.
Accused Named in Chargesheet
The accused include:
- Saumya Chaurasia, former OSD to then CM Bhupesh Baghel
- Ranu Sahu, former Korba collector and suspended IAS officer
- Maya Warrior, former assistant commissioner-tribal development
- Bharosa Ram Thakur, former deputy collector & DMF nodal officer
- Former Janpad Panchayat CEOs: Bhuneswar Singh Raj, Virendra Rathore, and Radheshyam Mirjha
- Businessman Suryakant Tiwari
- Vendor Manoj Dwivedi
All are currently in judicial custody.
Charges and Allegations
The chargesheet cites multiple IPC sections–
- 120B (criminal conspiracy)
- 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property)
- 467, 468, 471 (various forgery-related offenses)
- Along with provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
According to the EOW, the accused orchestrated a criminal conspiracy during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 fiscal years to misappropriate DMF funds allocated in Korba. Tenders were rigged and awarded to preferred vendors linked directly or indirectly with the accused. Around 40% commission, amounting to approximately Rs 75 crore, was siphoned off, causing significant financial losses to the government.
Modus Operandi: Rigged Tenders and Dummy Firms
The scam involved–
- Rigging of tenders through dummy firms
- Illegal financial arrangements and forged documents
- Bribes falsely recorded as accommodation expenses
- Fake companies created solely to secure DMF contracts
- Investigators recovered large sums of cash, forged documents, digital devices, and stamps of dummy firms during raids.
Enforcement Directorate (ED) Actions
The ED seized Rs 76.5 lakh in cash and froze eight bank accounts totaling Rs 35 lakh. Assets worth nearly Rs 23.8 crore linked to 10 accused, including Ranu Sahu, Maya Warrior, and Manoj Dwivedi, have been attached.
Legal Proceedings and Arrests
Despite the Supreme Court granting interim bail to 12 accused in a related coal scam on March 3—including Sahu, Chaurasia, and Tiwari—the EOW secured production warrants and re-arrested them in the DMF case, ensuring their continued detention.
Impact and Ongoing Investigation
The DMF was created to benefit mining-affected communities, but the scam has exposed severe lapses in oversight and accountability in Korba’s fund allocation and tendering processes. The investigation is ongoing, with the possibility of more names surfacing.
